Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015, Malorie Blackman is widely acknowledged as one of our most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers.

Her award-winning Noughts & Crosses series, for which she is perhaps nest known, has recently been adapted for television, and began airing on BBC One in March 2020.

The latest novel in the series, Crossfire, was published in the summer of 2019, and upon it’s release we were delighted to welcome Blackman to our Queen Elizabeth Hall stage, where she joined award-winning producer Tobi Kyeremanteng in conversation, in an event which included live readings from Crossfire.

“From the time I started writing I was always being criticised for not writing about racism, it was as if as a black writer that was the only thing I was allowed to write about, but I wanted to write the books I’d missed as a child; the thrillers and mysteries and whodunnits” – Malorie Blackman

Enjoy highlights of this event in this exclusively recorded podcast, as Blackman discusses her childhood years as an unrealised superhero, the creation of Noughts & Crosses, and the challenges of establishing herself as a writer.

Listen here